THEY are the Coronation Street houses that are turning the property market on its head.

Househunters queued through the night to be first in line to buy new "upside down" terraced houses in Salford.

The slate rooftops of the Victorian terraces in Langworthy feature in the opening credits of the soap but they have fallen out of favour with property buyers in recent years.

Developer Urban Splash has changed that by transforming 349 empty and abandoned terraces into chic and desirable new homes.

Each house in the Chimney Pot Park development will have two bedrooms on the ground floor with a living room upstairs and the kitchen in the roof.

And to make sure it remains a true Salford suburb, the first houses were only made available to those with close links to the area.

Buyers had to provide evidence they either lived locally or had immediate relatives close by.

Many were so keen to buy one of the houses, which start at é99,500, that they queued overnight at the Urban Splash offices.

Work on the project is underway and the first phase is expected to be completed by next spring.

One of the first in the queue to reserve a house was British Telecom worker Lynne Pringle-Adley, 56.

'Fantastic'

She said: "The houses are fantastic and Urban Splash has done us proud by also giving us the opportunity to buy them before the public.

"I've lived in the area for 34 years and I think we've got a bright future. This will be a wonderful community and one we can be proud of because there is nobody like Salford people."

Dave Pardy, 24, a maintenance worker, and partner Lynsey Ennis, 23, were also near the front of the queue.

He said: "We've just been looking and waiting ever since this was first mentioned about four years ago. This is a major improvement for the area and something to be proud of."

First-time buyer Abby Turpin, 25, a mental health worker, said: "The houses are unusual but I've always wanted to live in the area. This will be a really nice area and it could be the new Chorlton or Didsbury."

Nathan Cornish, from Urban Splash, said he was excited about the scheme, which had received more than 2,500 enquiries.

In the late 90s, most of the houses were boarded up after an exodus of many families - long before Salford council invited Urban Splash to help redevelop the area.

Now a new church and two primary schools are planned for Langworthy and Seedley, while about é500,000 is also being spent on improving the area.